Spring-trap.



D. BEGIER.

SPRING TRAP.

APPLIOATION FILED MAR. 28, 1911.

I 1,006,048, Patented Oct. 11911 away/boa llBe a-er.

EPIC.

DETLEV BEGIER, OE CHEYENNE, OKLAHOMA.

SPRING-TRAP.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 28, 1911.

nooaoas.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DETLEV Bnemn, citizen of the United States, residingat Obey-- cone, in the county of Roger Mills and State of Oklahoma, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Spring-Traps, of whichthe following is a specification.

My invention relates to animal traps and particularly to that form oftrap wherein a pair of jaws are actuated by a spring, the

jaws being held open by a detent when the trap is set, the detent beingactuated by the animal so as to release the jaws and permit them to trapthe animal.

The object of my invention is the provision of a very simple andeffective form of trap wherein the jaws are released by the animalcoming in contact with -a flexible connection, such as a cord or wireextending across the path of the animal, this flexible connection beingattached to a latch which holds the jaws in their open position.

A further object of my invention is the provision of a trap havingopposed jaws formed with sharp points which are designed to pierce theanimal caught in the trap and kill it, thus preventing the escape of theanimal.

My inventionv is illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of my improved trap with the jaws open.Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof with the jaws closed.

Corresponding and like parts are referred to in the followingdescription and indicated in all the views of the accompanying drawingsby the same reference characters.

In these drawings, 2 designates the base of the trap which is preferablyformed of a strip of metal, sufliciently wide to provide for supportingthe trap in an upright position. The ends of this strip are upwardlybent as at 3 and 4 to provide standards for the support of the trippingconnection.

Extending upwardly from the base 2 are a pair of spaced ears 5 betweenwhich are pivoted the two opposed jaws 6 and 7. Each of these jaws isstraight for a portion of its length and is then curved as at 8, the eX-tremities of the jaws being sharp pointed. One of the jaws, as the jaw 7for instance, has attached to it a loop 9 which, when the jaw 7 isspread open, depends into position to be engaged by a detent 10 which ispivoted between ears 11 carried by the base 2.

Patented Oct. 17, 1911. Serial No. 617,392.

Ears 12 are provided adjacent to the pins 11, between which is pivoted alatch 13 having on one side a notch 14 designed to engage the sharp endof the detent 10.

Attached to the upper end of the latch 13 is a flexible connection 15which extends from the upper end of the latch through a perforation 16formed in the upper end of the standard 4. The wire or flexibleconnection 15 then extends entirely across the trap and is attached atits other end to an eye 17 formed in the standard 3. This wire 15 isdisposed at such a height that it will cross the path of any smallanimal. It will be understood that the standards 3 and 1 might extendupward to any desired posi-. tion so as to raise the connection 15 toany height desired, to suit the animal designed to be caught.

The jaws 6 and 7 are closed by means of a spring 18 which is formed of aresilient strip of metal bent upon itself, the strip be ing formed atits ends with eyes 19 which engage over the ears 5. The eye forming theterminal portion of the upper arm of the spring will engage with thelower ends of the jaws 6 and 7 and tends to press these jaws inward ortoward each other. Thus when the latch is released, the spring 18 willcause the arms upon the ends of the jaws to move toward each other andpierce and hold any animal which may be between the jaws. In order thatthe jaws may not pass each other, I preferably form the adjacent edgesof the jaws with the flattened portions 20, thus providing abutments oneach jaw which will contact with each other when the jaws come together.

In operation my trap is placed along a path usually taken by the animalsto .be trapped and the jaws are opened to the position shown in Fig. 1.The detent 10 is placed through the loop 9 and the extremity of thedetent engaged with the notch 14 in the latch 13. The wire 15 or otherflexible connection is fairly taut so that as an animal travels alongthe path it will come in contact with the wire 15 and will spring thetrap. It will of course be understood that the trap is ordinarily buriedin leaves or loose dirt so that it cannot be seen and that the legs ofthe animal act to engage with the tripping wire 15 and act to trip thetra I have found in practice that my trap is extremely effective for thepurpose designed the unnecessary suffering where an animal has beencaught by a leg, as between the jaws of an ordinary spring trap. Theinventionis simple and may be very easily made and put in use.

What I claim is:

An animal trap comprising a base having upwardly extending standards atits ends, one of said standards having a perforation, oppositelydisposed jaws pivoted to the middle of the base and having relativelysharp terminal ends, a loop attached to one of said j aws, a spring forforcing said aws into closed position, a detent pivoted to the base andadapted to engage said loop, a latch pivoted to the base and having anotch adapted to engage the detent to hold it closed, and a flexibleconnection attached at one end to one of said standards, passing throughthe perforation of the other standard and attached to the latch.

DETLEV BEGIER.

Witnesses T. R0011, M. E. Lnwis.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, I). C.

